172 TWO DIANAS IN ALASKA 



a welcome addition to our strength, since the four 

 men of our party were utterly unable to move either 

 carcass, and roll the huge brutes a few feet beyond 

 the rising tide. In fact, we found that with the united 

 efforts of six men we barely moved each beast a few 

 yards up the shelving sand. Hence it became a 

 question of removing the skulls and scalp as quickly 

 as possible. This was no easy task, as the hides were 

 several inches thick, and so tough that a skinning- 

 knife soon lost its edge. 



Before the operation commenced I photographed 

 the dead beasts as they lay, and then ran the tape 

 measure over them. The largest bull measured twelve 

 feet nine inches from nose to tail, and its companion 

 was only an inch or two shorter. We estimated that 

 either one weighed nearly three thousand pounds. 

 Veritable mountains of flesh, bone, and blubber. 

 Ugly, ungainly brutes in life, and uglier still in death, 

 weird monsters of a pre-historic type, but still trophies 

 which a man can proudly show and say they cost 

 him certain hardships to procure. 



Ere we had finished skinning them the water came 

 rapidly upon us, and we all soon stood knee-deep in 

 the breaking waves, determined at all costs to save 

 at least the skulls. 



At last the heads were severed, and we rolled the 

 decapitated carcases into deep water, where they soon 

 went floating into the lagoon on a rising tide. Thus 

 leaving their favourite haunt unpolluted if the herd 

 returned once more to the sandbank. 



The weight of each head and scalp alone was just 



